Life Cycle of a Dragonfly

"Hello, how are you? I believe you are here to hear my story? No? Oh well, you can endure it anyway. It all started when I was a young hatchling, I kept a diary in those days… oh look I have it here, well I’ll read you my life story shall I? Excuse the language, of course, I was only 1 day old…

"I opened my eyes, the sticky stuff that sticks them together in the morning making it hard. Lots of swirling little specks went around me in the water and I saw my brothers and my sisters, Benny, bobby, Susan, Sally, Crackle, Floppy, Curly and Buggy and lots of others, floating around. A tear came out of my eye and swirled into the dark black that was all around me because Buggy was swallowed up by a big mean fish.

It was hard to move, but I kept moving because I had to, and I found some food and I found a place to rest. I had 6 little legs, but they were pretty useless under the water, because the water pulled me around. I stayed like this for years. My legs grew, the crusty lump that was on my back continued to disturb my steering. The sludgy dark water kept swirling me around. The water was the only world that I knew, but it was OK, because I had lots of other nymph dragon flies to care for and watch grow. One day, a sudden feeling, a pull, came over me. My legs seemed to thrash, as I slowly paddled toward the bank.

The bank was a terrifying place, with mud and plants and air. I heard some tiny fish talking about what it looked like, an “endless plane of swirling colour” they said. But fish don’t see too well, so I didn’t really believe them. But when my eyes were exposed to pure air for the first time, I really knew what they meant. The colours all blurred together, the dry, sharp air stinging my eyes. I sat there for a few minutes, lamenting the disappearance of every other of my siblings. It was nice to share new experiences with family.

As my legs dried, I slowly made my way up the branch, sticky green fibers catching at my small stump feet. The light turned to dark, but not the way I had known it. Specks of white dotted the black sheet that had unfurled above me. One large globe radiated a cool white glow, which reflected in flashes and shards of the still water. My 30, 000 eyes reveled in a panorama of moonlit glory. What was I thinking about? Can’t remember. I let my senses dull and my body go still, entering the resting state of torpor.

A bright and infinitely more radiant light overwhelmed me as my six legs stirred. I would have blinked, but for my lack of eyelids. But, since I was able to shield my eyes, much like a pair of snazzy sunglasses, the glare of early morning did not do me much harm. There was, however, a ridiculously ticklish tingling sensation happening near my rear end. Luckily, 360 degree vision gave me the ability to look back there and see what was going on. A strange and unnerving curly object seemed to be detaching itself from my lumpy back and flattening to a point. At the same time, four sticky appendage-like protrusions unraveled by my side.

The tingling spread up my body, until my face felt like it was being spun in a blender, but without the chopping, killing part. Suddenly a new-age vigor overtook me, the vibes of the 80s vibrating through my newer, slimmer body. Two shining, transparent pairs of wings rotated lazily from my sides, having dried promptly beneath the spring sun.

How many days had it been since I emerged from the water? Surely not a month. It must have been, for that was how long I knew it took my glorious species to fully mature. I was adorned with exceptionally beautiful black and blue stripes, which shimmered with a glitter like glamour. I was made for the 80s, I really should have been born then. In any case, it was time to eat, for I was ravenous. I was viciously fast and a natural born killer. The months of glorious hunting, and eating and sleeping that followed must have been the most thrilling of my entire 5 year life.

But then came a day when my wings simply did not work. Beat as I might, their motion was too sluggish to lift my ageing body off the ground. The air seemed sticky, the ground held me fast. I fluttered meekly, my F18 super Hornet body acting as the Kitty Hawk on its test flight. My glorious blue stripe had dulled, and the fibers that coated my skin had begun to shed. I was balding. I staggered. I tumbled down, to the water over which I had hovered many a morning.

In achingly slow motion, I glimpsed a shadow, emerging from the depths of the pond I had once called home. A flurry of frothing water, and snapping, toothless gums, and I was swallowed into a pink tinged, and highly acidic fish stomach. Now I really was balding. Ah well, I’ve had a good life, time to accept imminent death. It has been nice being in your stomach, but I guess I should let the circle of life do it’s –"